N.J. sets guidelines for towns that get extra aid

Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerA view of Main Street in Asbury Park. Asbury Park will receive $11.75 million in transitional aid from the state.

TRENTON — The 13 municipalities awarded transitional aid from the state this year are being required to sign a memorandum of understanding, pledging to adhere to specific state guidelines aimed at curbing spending.

The strings attached are meant to wean municipalities off transitional aid, which is given every year to a few towns facing a financial crisis.

“The message ... is simple: Municipalities facing fiscal challenges cannot depend on getting this aid year after year after year,” Lori Grifa, commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, said Thursday in a press release.

Among other requirements, the state is directing aid recipients to seek approval before hiring for new positions. It also prohibits increases in compensation for elected officials, freezes promotions and transfers involving salary increases unless required by contract, and requires towns to submit a plan detailing how they intend to eliminate reliance on aid.

“It’s not an easy task, but not one we will give up on before even trying,” said Carey Pilato, mayor of Bound Brook, which received $960,000.

Most towns receive money from the state in the form of municipal aid, but transitional aid is given in addition to that sum for those municipalities that prove they have taken aggressive measures to reduce costs, but cannot close their budget gap without a significant increase in property taxes.

Asbury Park received $11.75 million — more than half of the total share — when awards were announced in September to help close a $12.2 million budget gap. Last year, it received $10.5 million, and the year before $12 million.

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That’s the kind of pattern the state is hoping to break.

“The trouble was that so-called ‘extraordinary aid’ was not so extraordinary – it was regular and doled out every year to municipalities, which came to assume and anticipate the aid as part of their budgets,” said Mike Drewniak, spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie.